Yet another baby wrongly taken away

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

here
Thank God it was only for 2 weeks.
The bit that makes me mad is the way depression seems to count as a big black mark against you. I wonder how justified that is - what proportion of depressed mothers really harm their children?

special guardianship is more than a residence order, but less than adoption. The child keeps their family of origin, surname etc but (I believe) the carers get parental responsibility.

Thanks hester!

Well said Hester. Unfortunately many people have a less than informed opinion about child protection based upon media reporting which is seldom correct.

If people want to know how the system is set up go to the every child matters website which has a wealth of information or the NSPCC site.

Remember we only hear about the mistakes and there is tons of good work done.

I have to post and fly but...

I have experience of child protection issues and would also like to offer my support to kat.

Absolutely Fifi - there are tens of thousands of children being looked after by the state and they are not all dreadful miscarriages of justice.
Instead of endlessly focussing on the errors we need to put our energy into making the outcome for all those children much better than it currently stands.
People love to point their finger but are not as quick to do anything to help.

But mistakes, even if it is just one, are deeply troubling.

What can be done to make the system better at finding out mistakes when they happen, ensuring that the root causes are identified and addressed, with a view to them not happening again.

We desperately need more accountability and transparency in the way social services and the family justice system works, not only so that mistakes cannot be buried under the excuse: 'oh, we don't and cannot know all the facts, there is more to things that what you read', but also that where good has been done due credit is given and the public given an opportunity to regain trust in child protection processes.

I don't buy the line that there are idiots in every profession. It is precisely because there are idiots that we need proper disciplinary procedures that are followed, open hearings, published results and proper lessons learnt beyond mere lip service.

But in this case, Blueshoes, the social worker and then court acted in good faith upon medical evidence presented to them. Why would anyone other than the doctor need to be disciplined?

Yes, but surely the mistakes here were not made by social services. SS were told by a doctor that these injuries had to be non-accidental; surely they had no choice but to act on that information.

Shouldn't we be clamouring for more accountability in the medical profession?

I feel that the information and statistics that are being gathered by johnhemming is vital.

The government should be the one doing this in the first place. And if they are happy about the way that child protection is working, they should be openly furnishing information to johnhemming and his team and expressing interest in the results.

Instead, from what he has encountered, it sounds like john and his team have to use every trick in the book to get the info they need, including the Information Commissioner.

It does not fill me with confidence that the government is particularly interested in uncovering mistakes or ensuring they will not happen again. In the meantime, vulnerable children are being failed.

Cory, thank God. Why is this so hard to undertsand.
If a doctor comes to court and says 'I think that child has been injured and it's not an accident.' What in God's name are the social services and more impotrtantly the judge supposed to do?
They have to err on the side of protection and expedite the investigation. Which is exactly what has happened.

Every professional involved in child protection must be accountable. That includes doctors without a doubt. It also includes lawyers, police, social workers, judges, local authorities and whoever else.

And no more of this passing the buck by saying that the different agencies do not communicate so they cannot build up a big picture of an individual child. That has to be sorted out as well!

Blueshoes - you and MrHemming sound like you're reading from a scrpt.
Yes, this was not a good experience for the baby in question but if you had been the judge what would you have done?

But in this case the doctors and social services did communicate. The doctor informed them immediately of his concerns. They took action.

I notice that social workers on these threads do not tend to respond to the points raised by johnhemming's posts. Why is that?

I would really like a proper debate between the professionals involved in child protection and someone like john who sees things from the other side.

For this particular case linked to by the OP, I don't have any real concerns. The separation was only 2 weeks during which time the initial medical claims were being investigated.